John Lynch of BCA OUT?

[Garrett]

What I wonder is, what is it that Lynch did wrong? If the stations are in financial trouble, what risk did Lynch take that turned out wrong? Padres? 1700? I'm just trying to understand, how is it John Lynch's fault. And why do I suspect the new guy is just putting the statios in line to be sold?

He was the captain of the ship and was removed from the poop deck. A bidness decision by the owners.

Save for the standard corporate perspective, was there anything that he could have done differently? (And don't say "not lose millions of dollars," I think we got that point).

 

[SDRadio]

Save for the standard corporate perspective, was there anything that he could have done differently? (And don't say "not lose millions of dollars," I think we got that point).

That's a question you'll have to ask Mr. Lynch. The station group was loosing money and ... well, you read the point but don't get it.

I talked with the equity partners and that's the decision they made. It's their company. When it was John's company, he did what he wanted; and that's the problem. Over promised (ratings for one), over paid (Padres baseball), and under delivered (no ears).

You haven't, based on your writing, that a company is not a gummit program that can just ask for more money from the public. That's the job for public broadcasting.

 

[Garrett]

Save for the standard corporate perspective, was there anything that he could have done differently? (And don't say "not lose millions of dollars," I think we got that point).

That's a question you'll have to ask Mr. Lynch. The station group was loosing money and ... well, you read the point but don't get it.

I talked with the equity partners and that's the decision they made. It's their company. When it was John's company, he did what he wanted; and that's the problem. Over promised (ratings for one), over paid (Padres baseball), and under delivered (no ears).

You haven't, based on your writing, that a company is not a gummit program that can just ask for more money from the public. That's the job for public broadcasting.

I think you've answered the question very well, thank you.

 

[SDRadio]

I think you've answered the question very well, thank you.

You're welcome.

 

[SDRadio]

I think you've answered the question very well, thank you.

You're welcome.

A lot of radio fans -- myself included -- wonder why some radio stations succeed, and some fail. Then there are sure-fire great ideas that fail. BCA was one of those. It's not that the former owner was (or is) a bad guy, it's just that in the maze of running a radio station daily, there is one thing that makes it succeed. Money. Money in and money out. John sold out to a couple of equity groups to prop up the station a few years back; but the drain continued.

Don't blame the Padres either. They got the best deal; and that is a business decision too. Get the most on the broadcast rights. BCA believed that the future was going to be great with the baseball team on the strongest signal station in the market. In all the rose-glass scenarios the financial nose dive in ad revenue happened.

There is no media in town unaffected. Radio, obviously, we have ear witnessed what went on. The main paper in town was sold to an investment group for one thing: the land, buildings and location were very inexpensive. Take the newspaper out, and the new owner has prime location for land in several key areas. Buy a full page ad in some papers, you'll get a couple of more ads thrown in at no additional cost -- and ad rates have been slashed.

Likewise with radio, ad rates have dropped. Television is going through a radical change. On-line streaming, smart phone, et al. Plus, in some cases it is less expensive to buy a subscription to a TV program from Amazon or iTunes than get the channel on cable/satellite. (Terriers on FX is an example)

The "cash register tied to the antenna" is not a reality anymore. Some stations have to work for every dime, and some have an easier time. That's why being number one but spending a 3/4ths of your profit for the claim many not be a smart idea. It's all profit to stay alive -- and in some cases -- to keep the company on life-support.

 

[refriedgringo]

1090 wasn't (and still isn't) taking advantage of possible revenue from many sources, and they burned through money more quickly than they should have. For example, if their website was more active, they could've made some money there. The Dan Diego Union-Tribune has a terrible sports section. With their target demographic wanting to read sports, some content with interactive capability on the station's website would have been great. Only recently have talent begun to use Facebook and Twitter. There are a lot of reasons beyond that.

So far as 1700, it's being talked about that they could be a good match for the ESPN signal.

 

[refriedgringo]

Another thing: XEPRS 1090-AM will lose the right to broadcast the Jim Rome Show.  Syndicated by Premiere, which is owned by Clear Channel, the show will move to KLSD 1360-AM which is also owned by Clear Channel.  The move is widely thought by many in the industry to be Clear Channel's last attempt at saving KLSD's horrible ratings.  I have no idea if this is the straw that ultimately broke Lynch's back, and I doubt that anyone will be told.

Personnel (including talent) at XEPRS do not know what changes will occur in that slot, nor do they know when they will be told what changes will occur in that slot.  Most likely is that the morning show moves from 5-9 to 6-10.  After that, it's a guessing game.  The 12-3 gets decent ratings and the talent is under contract for a while.  The afternoon drive slot (4-7) is either hated or loved, but talent contract is up sometime in October.  The evening slot (mostly vacated during the baseball season in favor of Padres games) featured John Kentera, but he was very tight with Lynch, and has recently become the GM of a local indoor soccer team, so who knows how that will turn out.

BCA also owns XEPE 1700-AM, which hosts financial programming in the morning and then piggyback's 1090's broadcasting in the afternoons and evenings.  Management at BCA under Lynch were looking into turning that into a ESPN station.

At any rate, sports stations in San Diego are going to become interesting in the coming weeks.  Considering that 1360's signal is too weak to provide good coverage, unless Clear Channel is quickly successful in finding another tower with a stronger signal, nothing will likely make that station economically viable.  Statements from new management under new CEO Larry Patrick (Patrick Communications out of Maryland) claim that there will be no changes in personnel and that the vacant slot will be filled with talent currently working for BCA.  While I'm sure that will be true for a very short time, my guess is that heads are going to roll once they take a closer look at the books.

(If this information has been posted in an earlier thread, forgive me, I'm new here.)

An aside: 1090 boasts a 50,000 watt signal while 1700 supposedly has only a 10,000 watt signal.  I live in Baja, east of Tijuana.  Why in the heck do I pull in 1700 so much better than 1090?

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Considering that 1360's signal is too weak to provide good coverage....

An aside: 1090 boasts a 50,000 watt signal while 1700 supposedly has only a 10,000 watt signal. I live in Baja, east of Tijuana. Why in the heck do I pull in 1700 so much better than 1090?

What do you mean 1360's signal is too weak? I heard them just fine when I was in Campo one day last month around noon, and where I live near El Cajon, it's quite strong here day and night. I can understand having a little difficulty in San Bernardino or Corona, due to adjacent-channel signals there, though.

As for 1090 vs. 1700, I believe 1090 uses their directional pattern 24/7.

 

[refriedgringo]

Considering that 1360's signal is too weak to provide good coverage....

An aside: 1090 boasts a 50,000 watt signal while 1700 supposedly has only a 10,000 watt signal. I live in Baja, east of Tijuana. Why in the heck do I pull in 1700 so much better than 1090?

What do you mean 1360's signal is too weak? I heard them just fine when I was in Campo one day last month around noon, and where I live near El Cajon, it's quite strong here day and night. I can understand having a little difficulty in San Bernardino or Corona, due to adjacent-channel signals there, though.

As for 1090 vs. 1700, I believe 1090 uses their directional pattern 24/7.

KLSD is 5000/1000 transmitting from the same tower as is KGB. No idea why you got 'em so good in Campo. Oceanside can't reel them in and neither can the South Bay (much less me here in Baja, without a mountain of annoying static, and the channel completely fades out often).

With 1090, they transmit near Playas (maybe 10 miles away) while 1700 transmits near the Otay border (maybe 8 from where I'm at), so I'm surprised at why I get the weaker signal better. 1090 comes in relatively clear, but 1700 is almost totally clean. To my knowledge, both stations have a 24/7 directional pattern.

 

[Randex]

I think we are ignoring the elephant in the room. Yes, Lynch and his crew were comically unqualified to run a modern broadcast operation. Yes, BCA was comically unprepared to take on the FCB stations. It was certainly a good move to replace Lynch with someone more qualified and impartial to try to save that operation. But was he solely to blame for the mess that is BCA?

For those of us who have been around, especially those of us that did time at Granite Ridge, what about Jack Evans? From what I hear from inside the BCA building, Lynch was hands off when it came to the programming and day to day. It's the Jack Evans show. Anyone remember how that turned out at CC? I'm guessing Lynch may be wishing that he had reconsidered giving Evans one last chance to get his act together. I am pretty sure that Jack Evans doesn't even know how to use email.

And while the entire cluster is surely bleeding, it seems to me that the biggest issues to deal with are XX, 91X, and 1700.

After witnessing the spectacular failure of Jack's old crew at Tribune, one has to assume that Jack is running BCA the same way.

 

[refriedgringo]

..what about Jack Evans? From what I hear from inside the BCA building, Lynch was hands off when it came to the programming and day to day. It's the Jack Evans show. Anyone remember how that turned out at CC? I'm guessing Lynch may be wishing that he had reconsidered giving Evans one last chance to get his act together. I am pretty sure that Jack Evans doesn't even know how to use email.

There is much truth in all of this, although Lynch made all of the money decisions from what I understand. It could very well be that once the new CEO gets a better look at the books, Evans could be gone. Usually, new CEO's like to install their own Vice Presidents. Evans has made many mistakes in the year-plus he's been in that position at BCA.